Introducing solids whilst breastfeeding

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It is important that you understand that solid foods are not yet supposed to become your baby’s primary source of nutrition, solid foods should just compliment and be introduced gradually. It will be a whole new exciting experience for your baby who has only tasted the bland sweet milk, and will be quite the stimulating adventure, exploring a riot of new flavors on his or her tiny taste buds.

What foods to start your baby on:

Introduce your baby to one food at a time; cereals are a good starting point as they are iron-enriched, go steady, choosing a single grained cereal or wholegrain rice or wholegrain oats or barley. Combine a small volume of baby cereal with breast milk, or formula, or water, to give the food a creamy texture which should be easily digestible for your little one. Keep it plain to start with, take it steady introducing one taste at a time!

When introducing vegetables, start with the softer, sweeter fibrous types, going for the more orange or yellow varieties like carrots and sweet potatoes, before graduating to more stringy fibrous veg, of the green family, like peas and cabbage. If your baby refuses to eat these, don’t force him or her, instead persist gently and with patience, just keep introducing your little one to the food each day until eventually they feel familiarized enough with the food, and adventurous enough to eat it.

When introducing fruits, the key is to make them of a more appetizing (to your baby), creamy texture. Jars of pureed fruit, specially catered baby food, prove very popular, or you can finely mash bananas, peaches and pears or make baby apple sauce. You could also try ripe avocado, which is rich in healthy fats.